A drug dealer who carried out the cold blooded execution of a man in a Birmingham street has been jailed for life.

Kemar Whittaker fired a volley of bullets at Andrew Huntley near a city nightclub before shooting him twice in the head at close range.

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Hughes said: "I am quite satisfied that you went looking for Mr Huntley having armed yourself with a gun.

"There was a minimal argument before you executed him in cold blood as he was kneeling on the ground.

"You set up Mr Huntley by a telephone call to make sure where he was going to be. Having found him you shot him as he was running away at least ten times eventually administering the coup de grace with two shots.

"These executions in the streets are of a kind that are regrettably too common.

"I have no idea what the dispute between you and Mr Huntley was. I cannot make the assumption it had anything to do with your admitted drug dealing although it may have had."

The judge also said the gun used in the execution had been in circulation on the streets and had been used in another murder and six further shootings in Birmingham.

He ordered that Whittaker (23), of Avenue Road, Tottenham, London, serve a minimum of 30 years before being considered for parole.

Another man, Tishane Bernard (19), of Jarvis Road, Erdington, was cleared of murder but was found guilty of assisting an offender.

Bernard, who pleaded guilty following the jury's verdicts, to two charges of possessing a knife and had previously admitted supplying crack cocaine was sentenced to eight years.

A third defendant, Dwight Campbell (20) of Churchfield Avenue, Tipton, was found not guilty of assisting an offender.